I like to make things

Ink Won't Fade as Fast: Behind the Song

For the last 3 months I've been working on the music and videos for "Ink Won't Fade as Fast". As mentioned in an earlier post, early on I realised the song wasn't heading where I had originally intended so I decided to make two different edits. As I've made the decision to produce videos for all new songs this meant two different videos as well. In this post I want to write a little about the background behind the song, edits and videos and some of the decisions I made along the way.

This song is not my usual subject matter. The inspiration came from an encounter I experienced in London last year. I'm not familiar with writing about intimacy and I never intended to share the details, but I hoped the song might invoke some of the feelings and help me to remember. For these reasons I've tried hard not to be too narrative with the words and visuals. Instead of writing about the experience, I decided to write in the third person and describe someone remembering the experience. Now it's finished, I've realised that the song doesn't really articulate what made this particular experience so special to me and in some ways that feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. So, although I don't wish to share the details, I might tackle that angle in another project down the track.

While I'm on the topic of words, I do realise the poor grammar of the title. "Quickly" is probably more grammatically correct but it just didn't have the same rhythm and alliteration as "fast".

Musically, my original intention was for something that had a light feel about it, in sympathy with the experience. I also hoped I could create something that was different, at least for me. But of course, instead I found myself steering towards known territory with familiar styles and sounds. Not bad; just familiar and safe. I didn't want to scrap this version so I decided to call it the "blue ink edit". I actually considered calling it the "blue cliché edit" because, if anything, it feels a little cliché to me.

To create the "ink stain edit" I took the original and stripped away everything but the vocals. Even those I removed the processing from so I could start again. Coming up with new beats was going to be the key and for the first time in a while I really wanted to put the effort into building them from scratch rather than using loops for inspiration or as components. Beats are not my strong point and I don't feel confident working with them. But I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I think they transformed the feel of the song. Related to the beats was a conscious decision to minimise long chords or notes aligned to the bar which is kind of a feature in the "blue ink edit". The bass line, in particular, was a direct result of that decision. But what I'm most pleased about with this edit is the delicate feel; it really matches my memory of the moment. And I think the koto-esque lead in the final verse helps with that lightness; definitely an example of a lucky fluke, not to mention a rarely taken opportunity to play with pitch bend!

Like the music, the "blue ink edit" video came first. To me the music is a bit smooth and milky so I decided to match it with desaturated visuals and a pale blue tint. Many parts of the song fade to the blue tint at the end of the bar to accentuate the bar aligned beats and chords; kind of a visual beat. Interspersed between the "flowing" sheets I wanted to place images that hint of sensuality. Although they also ended up looking a bit cliché, in line with the alternative title, they were still fun to experiment with, create and film. The idea of writing on the sheet was a nod to the chorus line but I was nervous of being to literal. So I made sure I offset the writing scenes from the choruses to keep them separate. I hope the concept was worth sacrificing the sheet for!

For the "ink stain edit" I wanted to take a different approach. I didn't think the visuals for the first edit would work with this one anyway. I wanted to play with the concept of ink being used to record a memory without using words or pictures. As the rhythm of the edit evolved I thought about animating the artwork to grow with the music. It was a lot of fun to play with the ink and discover what worked; it took quite a few attempts to get the effect I wanted. Animating the ink, especially the dripping colours in the second chorus gave me a great opportunity to learn new techniques. My only reservation about the final product is that maybe it doesn't have the same lightness as the music.